Dover Int'l Speedway - Best Buy 400

Jess

RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
6. Martin
13. Brian (2 LD)
17. Casey (3 LD)
20. Kurt (4 LD)
27. David (6 LD)
28. Michael (7 LD)
35. Dale Jr. (13 LD - ACCIDENT)

This will probably be one of the worst race reports ever since my FOX affiliate, WXXA, did not show the race at all this weekend. It was replaced by a telethon for the Children's Hospital in Albany - which is a great cause, don't get me wrong - but the lack of good planning the station had was unreal. So this is what I was able to gather from listening to David's radio, seeing dots run around on PitCommand, This Week in NASCAR and official race reports on driver websites.

The Big One occured not even twenty laps into the event when Elliott Sadler apparently wasn't aware David Gilliland had gotten under him. He drove over the nose of the #38 and a big crash commenced. Dover is a fast place with little vision coming off the corners and it wasn't long before Tony Stewart and a bunch of others added to the chaos. Unfortunately Dale Jr. was one of them. He pretty much stopped without a whole lot of damage when Denny Hamlin and Bobby Labonte careened into the gaggle of cars. Junior's little dot on PitCommand was in the same place for a long while - it was only during TWiN that we learned his splitter had actually gotten stuck underneath the inside retaining wall! It had to be replaced, which explained why he went so many laps down and how he was still able to keep up with the field fairly well (it looked like he was being a thorn in some drivers' sides, too, but that's another story!).

Before that happened David's day was nearly ruined when Joe Nemechek got into the back of him and nearly sent him into the wall. When I saw the replay on TWiN my jaw dropped - it took a lot of talent to save the car. For the first part of the race the #44 was handling very poorly and David could barely hang on. Things were looking a little better despite being a couple laps down (long green runs with green pit stops will do that) and I was looking forward to another top 20 to put in the books. However, on the last green pit stop of the race all hell broke loose. Ryan had mentioned before that there was something wrong with the fuel intake (it was popping out?) but it hadn't caused any dire problems yet. When the last cycle of pit stops was occuring Ryan told David to stay out a few more laps, probably hoping to catch a caution. Instead, a lap later David radioed in yelling that he was out of gas. To make things worse, it took forever to get the car refueled (it's hard enough to get a car started after it's run out but I image the intake issue must have made it more difficult than normal). Ryan sounded extremely upset and to David's credit he didn't freak out. It was only on the white flag lap did he ask, "How did we manage to run this thing out of fuel?" It was really disappointing because the team didn't deserve to finish as far back as they did.

Michael had an awful day. Just awful. He's very lucky Scott Riggs got into the Sadler/Gilliland wreck or Michael would be having to qualify in this weekend.

Kurt was running in the top 15 despite fighting an ill-handling Miller Lite Dodge but his day took a hit when a dry-break connection in the fuel system was found to be broken. I had been hoping that this would be the weekend these guys would turn it around but it was just another day of crappy luck.

It was going to be a wonderful race for Brian when two mistakes took him out of contention. He ended up speeding on pit road - twice! I can understand once, but you'd think after the first time you'd be a little more careful. Dover pit road speed is only 35MPH and that's not very quick at all.

Casey did a great job at slowing down and stopping to avoid the big wreck on Lap 17! Other than that he had a fairly good day.

Martin was our knight in shining armor! He ran very well all day long and was the last car on the lead lap. It seemed like he was going to be lapped by Kyle Busch at the end of the race but Kyle said on Victory Lane that he couldn't catch him. That's a little bittersweet because he probably could have won the race, but he just didn't get out front.

#44 Quotes of the Race

Under caution after the big wreck

Michael: "Who shot you up the hill, Dave?"

David: "Ah, the 78. I was up on the outside of him, I got by him and he drove it in there a little deeper than I'd anticipated (laughing a little)."

Michael: "Ohhhhh!"

It's fun when Michael gets on David's radio!

POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -271
15. Martin -609
19. Brian -723
21. Kurt -725
25. Casey -857
26. David -867 (+108 ahead of 36th)
34. Michael -1038 (+31 ahead of 36th)

NNS: Dover Int'l Speedway - Heluva Good! 200

Danni

RESULTS
1. Denny Hamlin
4. David
12. Scott

It was a "heluva good" race for David and his team, especially considering that their primary car caught on fire during practice! The #99 crew used a little pit strategy to launch themselves into the top-5 and were able to hold their position. Unfortunately, David Stremme, who was on two fresh tires, made it difficult for Reut to pass for 3rd even though his car was better. After the race, Reut was seen talking to Stremme and we joked that the conversation only looked friendly.

Scott really struggled in the beginning, barely able to get into the top-20. I found this strange because the #29 is usually so strong, but then the broadcast mentioned that even Jeff Burton has recently commented that the Nationwide effort has slacked off to channel more effort toward the Cup side. I understand that the Cup series is RCR's primary concern, but it's disappointing to see Scott suffer because of it. However, he salvaged a much better finish than I'd hoped. Now begins a streak of him being in the car, so maybe he can use that time to bring the team back to winning form like earlier in the season!

An incident that got my attention occurred during the homestretch of the race. Jason Leffler got wicked loose on a restart and chased the car way up the track - right into the side of teammate Kyle Busch. It was a hard hit and Kyle wrecked big. In my opinion, maybe Leffler should have let off a little more instead of trying to save it, but when it boiled down, it was just another racing deal. But in typical ESPN style, they tracked Kyle down immediately afterwards and asked him what happened while it was still raw. Of course, he implied that Leffler didn't what to be Braun Driver #2, so he wrecked him. It was a pretty crude thing to say, but what do people expect when you have an annoying, unprofessional pit reporter stalking you down after you've just gotten crashed by a teammate? I simply slapped my forehead with a hand. Of course, he'll get criticized for being immature and a punk. He'd also get the same thing if he denied an interview. It really is a no-win situation for Kyle. He'll get things straightened out with Bruan and Leffler I'm sure. It just sucks that this is another thing that stupid people will use against him.

POINTS STANDINGS
1. Clint Bowyer
4. David -166

Dover Qualifying

Jess

CUP RESULTS
1. Greg Biffle
2. Kurt
6. Brian
20. Martin
25. Dale Jr.
37. David
39. Casey
40. Michael

Oh man, I'm so hoping for another great performance by Kurt and the Miller boys!

MWR's qualifying effort was rather disappointing, though David said in one of UPS Racing's lovely qualifying reports that the #44 is better in race trim (though about fifteen minutes into practice he's last ). I'm very worried about Michael - that time would have sent him home if he hadn't been locked in. And he's only locked in by three points.

NATIONWIDE RESULTS
1. Carl Edwards
14. David
15. Scott

When David swung out the back end of the Dream Machine during his first lap I nearly passed out! We were in Syracuse all Friday so we didn't get to see practice, but while browsing through photos I saw David getting out of his car with the hood up and everything blackened and smoking! Apparently fuel leaked into the carburetor and caused a fire! The #99 team had to pull out the backup car.

Scott also had a good lap even though his car looked a little antsy.

Hoping for a great race for both these boys - and certainly hoping they avoid any nasty thunderstorms, since Dover is under a tornado watch at the moment...

Charlotte Motor Speedway - Coca-Cola 600

Danni

RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
5. Dale Jr.
10. David
16. Kurt
27. Michael (3LD)
29. Casey (4LD)
34. Martin (5LD - ACCIDENT)
42. Brian (DNF - ACCIDENT)

The people attending the Coke 600 observed a moving prerace dedicated to Memorial Day, complete with bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace", which, personally, was my favorite (I love bagpipes). It's always nice to see the men and women who protect and have protected our country get recognized - it is because of them that we even get to watch NASCAR every weekend!

This is the longest race of the year that goes from evening to night - a challenge for both driver and crew chief to keep up with the changing track conditions and subsequent shifts in the car's handling. At the drop of the green, polesitter Kyle Busch left the field in the dust, but the top-5 saw a few of our drivers - Brian, Kurt and Dale Jr. On Lap 34, Brian took the lead and showed off the strength that he had in his previous spring start at Charlotte. As has been the trend much of the year, the cars were forced to pit road undeer green. Relief wasn't found until Lap 61 when Robby Gordon brushed the wall and brought out the caution. Under this yellow, Casey, who would struggle with an extremely loose car for most of the night, stayed out to lead a lap.

Kurt would lead during the following green flag run, which was just awesome to see! It was also part way through this stint that some foreshadowing would fall upon the #83 team when Brian reported that it felt like he had a loose wheel. Fortunately, he got saved when the caution came out, but unfortunately it was Kurt blowing a tire and hitting the wall while running 2nd. Talk about luck! It was pretty depressing, but it could have been a lot worse. Despite everything, the #2 crew would mend the car back into shape during the course of the race and Kurt would salvage a decent finish. It's just a shame because he had a race-winning piece under him.

Back beyond the top-5, David was charging his way forward only inches from the wall. Even though the car wasn't exactly to his liking, he drove it as best as he could and it really showed. Go David!

Brian led some more and then dropped back to second. Again, he radioed to his crew that it felt like he had a loose wheel. Moments later, his left rear wheel bounced violently and then came right off! Brian spun and hit the wall pretty hard. The wheel went on an adventure of its own. It ricocheted off the catch fence and then hit David Gilliland's hood, understandably causing him to wreck. The wheel continued on down the banking, picking up speed, jumped over the inside wall and narrowly missed the ambulance and a photographer. It then climbed the fence leading to the infield and hit the awning of a pop-up camper while the fans around the area raised their arms in victory! As unbelievably upset as I was about Brian's great day gone horribly wrong, I was amazed at that wheel. But the cause of it all is odd - this is the crew that won the Challenge a couple weeks ago. It just seemed that the lugs were coming loose. Just one of those freak situations that do a good job of ruining your race...

Dale Jr. led his first green laps of the night after the caution and David, through helpful pit strategy by Ryan Pemberton, broke the top-10 and flexed some muscle with the best racers in NASCAR. It was great to finally see him get recognition for his abilities and I'm sure UPS wasn't complaining about the positive coverage they got during the race.

Junior went on to lead more laps on and off through the next few stints. Then came Lap 296. Now, as probably even the non-Junior fans know (), Dale has gotten the habit of rim-riding, which often causes a few stripes on the side of his car. So when he came off of Turn 4 and put it into the wall rather hard, I wasn't particularly surprised, althought by that time I was so exasperated that all my drivers who had led and run great ended up wrecked that it was almost numbing to watch. When JJ Yeley slammed into the back of him, I kind of woke up a bit. However, it did more damage to the #96 and Junior scraped along the wall for a while because of two flat right side tires. In spite of being more frustrated than anything, I had to chuckle at this - he was directly in front of all those insane fans that I abhor so much. I love my June, but man, do I hate a large bunch of those idiots who wear his gear.

Then followed a series of events that left me a little confused but quite disgusted. Junior was able to keep going and went flying down pit road to get his car assesssed. Now, I personally saw him zip by a safety truck that was clearing up Yeley's fluid. That's a big no-no. To make it worse, nobody forget that he had two tires down at the moment. And he was clearly speeding, obviously to beat the pace car so he could stay on the lead lap. NASCAR has rules about these things for safety reasons! I remember one year at Pocono I watched Junior have a really bad race. He sped on pit road to beat the pace car and was penalized at least one lap. During the commercial here, NASCAR landed him with a one lap hold for what the broadcast explained as endangering a safety truck. Then, upon further review, they revoked it! WHAT? From what I've heard more than one other driver had negative opinions of this move and frankly I agree with them. Even if he didn't endanger the truck (which is crap because a car on two flats is dangerous by itself), he was speeding to avoid the pace car. It's this ridiculous favoristism that makes me crazy and makes people hate Junior! I don't give a crap if I'm called a bad fan - the #88 deserved a one lap penalty, no ifs ands or buts! UGH!!

But anyway... life went on.

And came another things that pissed me off. With Junior out of winning contention, Tony Stewart took the point. He led the field to the green grossly slow, causing everyone to bunch up behind him. Either he brake-checked or just shot off because all of a sudden he was way ahead while the rest of the cars ran into the back of each other. Just behind David - who was 12th - a massive wreck ensued, taking out Martin. And what happened to Stewart? NOTHING!!! God!! It was very clear that he screwed with the field and he crashed a group of cars! By now I was royally annoyed at NASCAR for being soft and careless.

However, karma does come back and bite! A long green run at the end of the race resulted in some pit strategy for fuel (which is why Junior finished so well). Stewart was leading by a huge amount with about 3 to go when he got a flat tire and had to come to pit road! HA!!

David barely missed finishing 9th when Carl Edwards ran out of gas and just made it over the line ahead. But I'm definitely not whining! David and his crew proved that they are capable of running with the big boys and, yes, I'm going to say it - they can win this year! They can! This performance came at a wonderful time to demonstrate to UPS that the #44 team is where they should stay. Come on UPS!

On the flip side, Michael ran terrible all night. This came at the worst time - with Sam Hornish Jr. doing better, Michael is now in immediate danger of falling out of the top-35 in owner points. I keep thinking back to his temper tantrum with Casey and then getting parked. If he hadn't lost his cool, he'd have more of a cushion. To make things even more dismal, Michael McDowell is also in peril of being forced to qualify with only a 14 point buffer. With sponsor troubles already on the #00, he just has to start finishing better. But asking that out of someone who was thrown to the wolves much like David was last year is really hard. I feel for him - we might not be seeing his big smile for much longer.

#44 Quotes of the Race
After the race

David: "Where'd we end up?"

Ryan: "Tenth, tenth. You almost got 9th there, the 99 ran out...those guys are pushing it. The 24, he made it on fuel...he finished 4th. You had a great run there, nice job, good hard work, guys. We take that and make it a touch better and we'll get top-5s. You do that a few times, then we'll do what we need to do. Great job."

David: "Thanks guys, good [solid?] night."

Ryan: "Ten-four, nice job. Lotta hard work guys!"

Shawn: "Good job, David! Did a hell of a job tonight!"

David: "That was fun!"

Shawn: "Ever peel the right side off that thing? Watch your left side here - 20 car coming inside here and he's not happy. Watch out!"

David: "What the hell is he going after?"

Karma! Michael also came on the radio and congratulated the team, which was nice.

POINT STANDINGS*
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -139
15. Martin -569
20. Brian -657
21. Kurt -668
26. David -759 (28th in owner points +77 from 36th)
27. Casey -779
33. Michael -927 (35th in OP +3 from 36th)
*Updated to show the 150pt penalties assessed to the #66 and #70 cars

NNS Charlotte Motor Speedway - Carquest Auto Parts 300

Jess

RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
4. Dale Jr.
5. Brian
11. David

Unfortunately Brian didn't lead the first lap - he had a very strong car all night but didn't end up leading until after the midway point! Pit strategy and some contact on pit road sent him back in the field for a while but you can't keep a good car down and it didn't take him long to return to the top 5.

David had a tougher time, although he started to make up spot quickly at the drop of the green. During their first pit stop they didn't take tires and ended up restarting 4th. This did not have the result they were hoping for because the little Dream Machine began to make a free fall out of the top 10. At one point it appeared that David didn't realize Clint Bowyer was under him while racing across the frontstretch - he drove him into the grass! He ran around in the top 20 for a while before making a late race charge back to 11th.

Junior had a great piece under him and I was surprised that he only led three laps. He had his fair share of drama as he watched his driver Brad Keselowski get into some trouble. Under the last caution of the race Keselowski bumped Denny Hamlin through the corner, stuffed the nose of the #88 under the #20 and then drove up beside him to show some sort of displeasure. Hamlin responded by yanking his car to the right and denting Keselowski's left front fender! Okay...I'm not one for retaliation but come on Keselowski - you deserved that for ignorance alone. Did he really think that after knocking Hamlin around for over one hundred feet and then pulling up beside him that Hamlin was just going to tremble in fear? Yeah right! Hamlin wasn't going to take Keselowski having as much of a hissy fit as that was. The #88 would have been better off giving him a good bump to show displeasure and then passing him during the race to send it home.

Remember a blog I recently posted where Junior went on and on about how Keselowski is getting a big head? Well it seems to me that Junior is probably one of the big causes of his arrogance. After Hamlin gave the #88 a good wallop, Junior drove up, passed Keselowski and then jacked Hamlin's back tires off the ground! Way to go, June, for encouraging bad behavior. I can understand an owner being disgruntled when someone messes with his driver, but let's get real here. You can't diss someone to the media for being full of himself and then pretty much show him that he has the right to be full of himself on the racetrack! Isn't that the number one rule of parenting? Don't yell at a kid about doing something and then egg him on later!

Kyle Busch went off and won the race (I'm sure he must have been very amused at the events commencing behind him!) and Keselowski finished 3rd because he couldn't get by Hamlin (duh, don't get your fender beat in next time). When the cars stopped on pit road the #88 crew dashed over the the #20 crew and started a brawl, led by Tony Eury Sr. Do men ever fully grow up? What's worse is that the "Navy boys" were clearly not listening to authority (NASCAR Officials) and were still lunging after the officials were right in the middle of the crowd. Nice. There was a funny part, when one camera angle caught Kyle happily doing a burnout as the carnage raged on pit road.

Keselowski whined that Hamlin didn't like him racing hard. This comment sort of confused me because then why was Keselowski the one instigating on-track bumping? That type of stuff is usually the other way around...like Hamlin racing Keselowski too hard. So that was odd. Hamlin had some funny quotes about when someone throws a rock at him he's going to throw a concrete block back. Junior said he doesn't like when his cars get torn up (I guess he didn't make the connection that it was Keselowski's attitude that tore this one up). By the end of it I was just hoping none of the #20 crew or NASCAR Officials got hurt by the #88 crew's lack of control.

Yesterday NASCAR handed down deserved penalties to Tony Sr. and two of the crewmen, one of whom was suspended for a race. Good. Apparently one of the officials was hurt as a result of the fight and that makes me think the penalties probably should have been harsher.

POINT STANDINGS
1. Clint Bowyer
4. David -188

Charlotte Qualifying

Danni

CUP RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Brian
6. Dale Jr.
8. Kurt
21. Casey
24. Martin
28. David
29. Michael

No surprise at the polesitter - Kyle sure knows how to make the haters squirm! I was, however, pretty shocked about Brian's run! Wow! He said afterwards that they were so focused on having a RACEcar that they neglected qualifying, so the #83 team decided to go back and try more qualifying stuff again. Looks like it paid off, especially if it's difficult to pass Sunday night.

Some of our other guys have quite a ways to get to the front. Since it's a 600 mile race, they have a long time to get there too!

NATIONWIDE RESULTS
1. Brian!
10. Dale Jr.
24. David

This was kind of scary to watch since they qualified in the heat of the day. Right in the middle of Turns 3 and 4 was like a loaded gun. A couple of the early qualifiers wrecked right there (including Kevin Harvick, which was odd to watch), but our David pulled what the booth called a "champion save" on his second lap. He was on a pole run when the car kicked out. I was like, "Oh no..." but David wrestled the Not-A-Dream Machine all the way up the track and kept it off the wall! I know he probably was pissy that he didn't get a better lap, but I'm sure his crew brushed off any apologies because otherwise they would have had a car to fix next week and a backup to pull out of the hauler!

In all reality, Brian had a huge advantage for the pole as a result of going out last. Still, I was thrilled to see him beat out poor David Ragan! He should have a good car to race with.

Random News of the Week

Jess

There have been some interesting developments and rumors to ponder recently posted on Jayski!

JR Motorsports: Cup?

Jayski posted part of a press conference transcript where Dale Jr. talked about the possibility of moving JR Motorsports to Sprint Cup:

IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU'LL MOVE UP TO THE CUP LEVEL WITH THAT TEAM ANYTIME? "I used to say no way, no way. But it's almost as expensive to run in the Nationwide Series. And they're going to bring a CoT in and we won't be able to race in the Nationwide Series with the CoT probably. That'll just be too expensive to switch all that over."

WOULD YOU DO IT AS EARLY AS NEXT YEAR? "Yeah, maybe. If the right opportunity comes along with the right sponsorship and driver, we'd love to do it. And it would cost the same amount of money to do that, as it is to run the Nationwide Series. It's harder to get sponsorships. And the CoT program is going to be too expensive for me to justify creating a whole new program with CoT stuff, so I'd just as soon go into the Cup Series or get out of the Nationwide Series altogether."

I know June has a habit of opening his mouth when he shouldn't; I'm really hoping this is one of those times. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't fully believe that running a Cup team is about the same as a Nationwide team. That set aside, is he joking? His Nationwide team (the #88 - I don't count the #5) hasn't won a race yet...and he thinks it's ready to head into Cup? I love Junior but I don't think it would be a great idea. Starting a Cup team isn't easy even if you do have a lot of money.

Tony Stewart's name came up as a potential driver, as well. Of course it would. Martin's name came up. Of course it would. They're Junior's friends and Junior does have a tendency to make his buddies his drivers. Unfortunately so far it looks like it hasn't worked out too well with the exception of Martin. JR Motorsports has gone through two drivers/buddies already and it appears that things are a bit tense between Junior and Brad Keselowski:

"The problem I run into with Brad Keselowski is that he watches and sees how I act and thinks that's how he can act. But I've earned the ability or the right to be a little bit of jerk every once in a while and the thinks he can come in right off the bat and be one. And so I have to tell him, man, you can't be like that you know, you got to earn it. People ain't going to like you just coming in, seven months into the deal, and you're complaining all the time. You've got to suck it up for a little while. It's no fun. But after about four or five years, you can start kind of being more demanding and calling your shots a whole lot more and saying 'no' a whole lot more often. But he wants a PR person that'll carry his uniform around for him and things like that right now, and he's got to wait a couple of years before he gets that. I tell him to be patient. And I tell him too that qualifying is overrated. So hopefully he'll start listening to that."

This is about the time I smack my forehead and look up at the sky. Nationwide coverage isn't too expansive so to me Keselowski always seemed pretty down-to-earth...Junior's comments surprised me in that aspect because he makes him sound like an arrogant poop. It bothers me a little, firstly because I've always gotten the impression that Junior's drivers think he's their friend first and boss after that (I mean he lets his drivers live with him). Secondly, no matter what he shouldn't be talking about Keselowski like that to the media - it should be between them. Maybe he feels it's gotten to the point where he has to publically embarrass him but I think team owners need to be more professional than that. It's an issue I have with Michael as well.

Aflac Signs with Carl Edwards: Primary Sponsor

This puts some hope back into me about MWR having a better chance of keeping UPS, since Carl Edwards was apparently their first choice. It also leaves Office Depot looking for a driver, already rumored to be McD. You can't help but dream and hope 2009 has a #55 NAPA Camry, a #44 UPS Camry and a #00 Office Depot Camry beefing up MWR.

Doug Richert: Bye Bye DEI

No surprise here as I saw this coming the moment he left Brian. According to Bob Dilner on SPEED just a few minutes ago, DEI also fired some Team Red Bull crewmen that came along with Richert! Things that make you go, "Hmm!" I wonder if they had "different philosophies"? We'll see where Richert ends up.

Charlotte Motor Speedway - All-Star Race

Jess

SHOWDOWN RESULTS
1. AJ Allmendinger (transferred to All-Star race)
2. Sam Hornish (transferred to All-Star race)
* Fan Vote: Kasey Kahne (transferred to All-Star race)
4. Brian
6. David
20. Michael

Charlotte has never been the same since it was resurfaced but the Showdown and the desperation that goes along with it gave the fans some good racing - and the best racing of the night.

Brian immediately took the lead from polesitter Elliott Sadler, which was awesome! He had a great car and pulled away. It was doubly cool because AJ was performing just as well, causing visions of the pair of Red Bull cars making the All-Star race together.

Poor Pat Carpentier wrecked within four laps. He didn't get lucky like he did in qualifying and killed the car...I felt pretty bad for him.

AJ's evening became a little more stressful when during a restart he was tucked behind Brian with Sadler to the #84's outside. Brian appeared to get a little squirrelly and in response AJ let off to give him some room. When he did this the #84 jumped a little bit and made contact with the #19. Sadler crashed. I felt bad. AJ felt bad. But it was racing, hard racing to make one of the biggest events of the year.

I stopped feeling bad once Sadler opened his mouth afterwards. "There’s a reason why he gets taken out of that race car it seems like every other week," he said (referring to AJ - he called him "whatever his name is" and Matt Yocum quickly corrected him). "It’s a shame. We had fast race car and he got into us and just took us out."

You know what? Shut up, you idiot. How soon he forgot the move he pulled the weekend before at Darlington. The one where he dove it in like a lunatic under Tony Stewart and crashed him. On Lap 2 of a five hundred mile points race! I used to like Sadler but after hearing (and hearing about) some of the things he's said and done I'm not a big fan anymore.

David had a great car, especially in the second segment. I feel he really could have contended for the transfer spots if he had had a little more time. Hopefully their awesome setup will work just as well for the Coke 600!

On the other hand, Michael did not have a good car. In fact, in was horrible. On TWiN he made me cringe because he said it was a good car after practice but he made them change stuff to make it "better"! I hate when he does this! He's done it so many times and he knows he does it since I've heard him say similar things before. Michael can still run well and he can be the driver he was when he was with Tony Jr. He's just got to have more trust in Bobby Kennedy.

Brian led during the second segment but AJ took his place on Lap 20 and would hold that position to win his first NASCAR race! I was very, very proud of him! I might have to slap myself for this but I'm going to say it anyway because I give credit where it's due: Sam Hornish did a wonderful job. He was fast and as far as I know didn't ruffle any feathers on his way to a 2nd-place finish. His car, however, looked ridiculous! "Crab-walking", they're calling it - apparently it makes these new cars turn better. It's also making it hard for the cars to fit on the inspection scales, so NASCAR is nipping this funky modification in the bud.

#00 (yes, the last hurrah for the Reutimann number) Quotes of the Race

(Shawn's encouragement before the green flag)

Shawn: "Remember last week when they dropped the green in the Busch race and you passed twelve cars in the first ten laps? Go ahead and do that tonight, too, if you don't mind."

David: "I don't mind!"

Shawn: "It's only forty laps, brother, you got nothing to lose!"

ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kasey Kahne
8. Dale Jr.
13. Casey
16. Martin
21. DJ
22. Kurt

Kyle Busch was dominant until his engine failed as a result of a very foolish JGR motor experiment that also took out Denny Hamlin. Only after he was having trouble and finally was out of the race did the other drivers have a chance. Junior led some laps but like I'd feared faded when it counted; Kurt was running very well for a while but dropped like a stone at the end. Casey and Martin were never a threat and despite a moving tribute to Dale Jarrett during prerace ceremonies (he drove the truck!) he struggled all night.

Kasey Kahne became the first fan vote winner to win the All-Star race. Fans all over were using programs to vote - I was one of them, I'll admit. The vote totals look strange because macros can vote tens of thousands of times a day, so non-Kahne fans are screaming conspiracy, of course. I'm not so sure about that. First of all, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Kahne was the driver to beat for the fan vote. Secondly, I believe voting programs can only do so much, and I doubt that every vote, even manual votes, were counted because very likely the programs and some manual voters can go faster than the votes actually register. But whatever...there's always next year and at least no one has to compete against Kahne anymore! I'm not going to be a sore loser because Michael didn't get voted in, especially since he probably wouldn't have run well anyway.

Other than that this race was boring. I was very disappointed because it looked very hard to pass and even then it seemed like nobody wanted to try. I hope the 600 isn't like the All-Star race - the Showdown was more exciting! That's not saying wrecks are cool...it wasn't that the All-Star race was caution-free...it was that it was more of a parade than a race.

All-Star Qualifying

Danni

SHOWNDOWN RESULTS
1. Elliott Sadler
2. Brian
14. Michael
17. David

From Michael's random audio during practice, I had feared a rather dismal run from the #55, but he said after his lap that he didn't go hard enough because he didn't have the confidence! Hopefully the car will be that good tonight! Michael is in contention for the Fan Vote if he doesn't finish 1st or 2nd in the Showdown.

David's lap wasn't as good as I'd wanted, but he's qualified bad before and still had a good racecar. It's nice to see him in the #00 again and a surprise to see Aaron's on the hood! Brian was so close to the pole! His crew won the Pit Crew Challenge on Thursday night - they were phenomenal!

ALL-STAR RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Kurt
4. Martin
11. Dale Jr.
17. Casey
18. DJ

All-Star qualifying is always fun to watch and there's usually at least one spin-out on pit road entry (Denny Hamlin took the honors Friday evening). Dale Jarrett is back in the #44 to make his last start - I really hope he has a decent night because his laps did not look too good. Of course, having Kyle Busch on pole probably doesn't make a lot of the drivers feel very confident!

Darlington Raceway - Dodge Charger 500

Danni

RESULTS
1. Kyle Busch
4. Dale Jr.
12. Kurt
14. Martin
19. David
24. Michael (1LD)
25. Brian (1LD)
35. Casey (26LD - ACCIDENT)

It was predicted with good reason that the race would be crash-infested. Several drivers were in backup cars. But in all reality, the night was generally calm. There were plenty of Darlington stripes, but the only two DNFs resulted from engine failures.

Excitement ran high when in the opening laps, Elliott Sadler got loose when he dove under Tony Stewart. Both cars wrecked against the wall. From Sadler's in-car camera, you could see Stewart drive past and give him the thumbs-up. I have to admit, I was impressed with Stewart's behavior - when he can keep his cool about getting wrecked and Michael can't, it's amazing! Actually, Stewart has been acting uncharacteristically happy ever since the rumors began that he may leave JGR. Hmm... it's a little creepy but I'm kind of liking it.

Dale Jr. and Kurt ran up front in the first portion of the race. It was really good to see Kurt in contention! But for a good bit of the race, David was among the fastest on the track - even faster than either Kyle Busch or Greg Biffle when they were leading! There were long green flag runs between cautions that spread things out and put a lot of cars down a lap. David started looking at the top-10 when things went downhill for him. His koolbox, for at least the second time this year, was blowing hot air on him. With temperatures in the 80s, I can't imagine how bad that must have felt. He began slipping back to around 20th position, obviously suffering. Ryan and Shawn sounded pretty concerned. Debris cautions brought him some relief when the crew gave him water and ice bags, but then he got his microphone wet and sounded like an alien for the remainder of the race! It was funny even though David was awfully hard to understand sometimes.

When Biffle unexpectedly gave up the lead to head to pit road after wheel problems, Martin led some laps. More green flag stops began and cycled through before Biffle brought out the next caution by leaving debris on the track. In a tale of sad irony, the pole-sitting car finished last after an engine failure. I feel for Greg! I also have a feeling he may be looking elseware in terms of a ride for next year based on some of his comments.

Something strange happened during that caution. The footage was confusing and brief. From looking at race reports, apparently Ryan was having some major mechanical issues (a broken rear end). While Brian was going into pit road, Ryan was told to also pit and swung down, but then was told to get back on track. He swerved to miss the commitment line and tagged Brian. It just sucked, then sucked moreso when Brian spun out on the track a while later. Not a very fun night for the #83. During that caution, Michael sped on pit road. He was having a better time than usual, but going to the tail-end of the longest line probably hurt.

Several laps later, another of our guys had his race go sour. Casey, running well, hit the wall then cut a tire and was forced to go to the garage for repairs. Ugh! That really marred his points climb.

During the next green run, Kyle Busch showed his true talent. While leading, he hit the wall hard on the backstretch. Sparks flew, the car swerved sharply and I thought for a moment that second-place Dale Jr. would take over the top spot. But man! Kyle kept going like nothing had ever happened!

The final yellow flew when Martin just sort of ran into the back of Denny Hamlin. I don't know what brought that on but I'm sure Hamlin didn't enjoy it.

The next sixty or so laps went green and Kyle continued his tear. It was awesome to see him win and know all the fans who can't stand Kyle were cringing under his talent! And you know? Not a whole lot of boos. I think his unpopularity is something only those fans jealous of him make up. I'm sure he probably has a lot of bandwagoners, though!

#44 Quotes of the Race
Ryan's post-race speech!

Ryan: "Nineteeth, man. Sorry, man, nineteenth. I'm gonna get that air conditoning and stuff worked out for you. You did a great job, man, hanging on to it. At any one point in time in the race, man, you looked as good as anybody, so uh, we just gotta work on it a little bit over there, clean up around the rough edges and we'll have good days here shortly."

You tell it!


POINT STANDINGS
1. Kyle Busch
3. Dale Jr. -134
15. Martin -460
17. Brian -529
22. Kurt -618
27. Casey -690
29. David -723 (31st in owner points +67 from 36th)
32. Michael -839 (33rd in OP +45 from 36th)